Executive Summary
The Israeli government stated on November 18th that it had been hit with more than 44 million cyber attacks following its recent aerial strikes on Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel. The hacker group known as Anonymous has claimed responsibility for the attacks, claiming it is responding to what it calls Israel’s “barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment” of Palestinians. Israel’s chief information officer, Carmela Avner, stated that, “The war is being fought on three fronts. The first is physical, the second is the world of social networks and the third is cyber attacks.” She further went on to state, “The attackers are attempting to harm the accessibility of Israel's government websites on an ongoing basis. When events like the current operation occur, this sector heats up and we see increased activity. Therefore, at this time, defending the governmental computer systems is of invaluable importance.” Thus far, the damage has been mostly limited to denial of service attacks and defacing of web pages on commercial websites, with little effect on critical government sites. Israel’s finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, credits this to Israel’s investment in cyber-security by stating, “We are reaping the fruits on the investment in recent years in the development of computerized defense systems.”
Analysis
This article shows how quickly conflicts can be become international and involve what would otherwise be considered noncombatant third parties – in this case Anonymous. In our current information age environment, there no longer is such a thing as regional conflict. Information and involvement tends to immediately become global. Therefore, cyber protection defensive measures, such as those taken by Israel, become critical. In this case, it appears that the cyber security measures protecting the security of critical and sensitive government websites were successful; however, while not necessary affecting government activities, disruption of commercial websites can also have detrimental impact on the civilian population, including both economic and social effects. Economic, in the sense that a country’s economy can be negatively affected when e-commerce sites are hacked; and social in that the state of mind of the population can be manipulated via these attacks that can be interpreted to show that the government is helpless to stop the cyber attacks on commercial entities even though government sites may be adequately protected. The result is that the population’s faith in their government’s overall abilities to protect them is shaken.
Anonymous declares 'cyberwar' on Israel
Executive Summary
The Israeli government stated on November 18th that it had been hit with more than 44 million cyber attacks following its recent aerial strikes on Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel. The hacker group known as Anonymous has claimed responsibility for the attacks, claiming it is responding to what it calls Israel’s “barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment” of Palestinians. Israel’s chief information officer, Carmela Avner, stated that, “The war is being fought on three fronts. The first is physical, the second is the world of social networks and the third is cyber attacks.” She further went on to state, “The attackers are attempting to harm the accessibility of Israel's government websites on an ongoing basis. When events like the current operation occur, this sector heats up and we see increased activity. Therefore, at this time, defending the governmental computer systems is of invaluable importance.” Thus far, the damage has been mostly limited to denial of service attacks and defacing of web pages on commercial websites, with little effect on critical government sites. Israel’s finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, credits this to Israel’s investment in cyber-security by stating, “We are reaping the fruits on the investment in recent years in the development of computerized defense systems.”
Analysis
This article shows how quickly conflicts can be become international and involve what would otherwise be considered noncombatant third parties – in this case Anonymous. In our current information age environment, there no longer is such a thing as regional conflict. Information and involvement tends to immediately become global. Therefore, cyber protection defensive measures, such as those taken by Israel, become critical. In this case, it appears that the cyber security measures protecting the security of critical and sensitive government websites were successful; however, while not necessary affecting government activities, disruption of commercial websites can also have detrimental impact on the civilian population, including both economic and social effects. Economic, in the sense that a country’s economy can be negatively affected when e-commerce sites are hacked; and social in that the state of mind of the population can be manipulated via these attacks that can be interpreted to show that the government is helpless to stop the cyber attacks on commercial entities even though government sites may be adequately protected. The result is that the population’s faith in their government’s overall abilities to protect them is shaken.